Are you planning to acquire your higher education as a business student? Or in another case, even if you are about to kick start your business then be concentrated because this is a must-to-read article for you. Particularly in business subjects, SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) is considered as the building block.

We know this term “SWOT” sounds almost like a rocket-science to many of you. Take it easy! We can help you with doing this puzzle. First, understand that it’s just a game of intellectual and calculations. Now, let’s understand its contextual connotation in simple words, SWOT is the holistic evaluation of the business through which brands figure out their market strengths which makes the brand exclusive among their competitors, the weaknesses, work as a barrier in the growth of the business, few opportunities with brands are able to seek success and the last one is threats which can harm the reputation of the brand.

You all might be thinking how this even works, even if the brand can find out its strengths and weaknesses then how it can identify its opportunities and threats? Well, it’s so easy that even you can do it. Yes, anyone can do this, and to perform this task, it is not necessary to own a brand. Let us give a real-time example of “how to do SWOT analysis” by performing it specifically on the Coca-cola brand.

Elaborate the audience and product

The very first step to do SWOT analysis is, elaborate the audience of the business you are performing your task on. Since we are quoting Coca Cola as our brand; therefore, we will shed light on its audience and product.

Coca Cola is known for its best taste in beverages. The brand caters and is being praised by almost all age groups but, specifically, its audience is from 18 years old to the age group of 35-year-old.  Note that we haven’t jumped into the SWOT process yet, it’s a general step which is important to take in consideration before performing this particular task.  Now, let’s get fall into the crux.

Know the strengths

To know the strength of any business, it is mandatory to have a clear image of their offerings and objectives. For example, the strengths of Coca Cola can be quoted as follows:

• The biggest strength of Coca Cola is that the brand has the highest commercial value, all around the globe.
• Internationally, the brand has approximately 79.2 billion dollars of valuation in terms of its factories, brand value; cost operations, business assets, etc.
• Coca Cola caters its audience in around 200 countries; this indicates that it has an immense global presence.
• Brand acquires a huge market share internationally.

Coca Cola is performing • Outstanding market and branding strategies.

• Also, the brand has vast distribution networks.

Identify the weaknesses

To stand in this highly competitive market, it is very important to know about your weaknesses and remember that where there are plenty of strengths, there are weaknesses too. Even your favourite brand, Coca Cola, has some weaknesses as well. Let’s have a look!

• The one thing which affects the standing of the brands is their competitors, and so does the competitor of Coca Cola. The rivalry of the brand is Pepsi, which itself is highly prominent in the industry of beverages.
• In the comparison of competitor Coca, Cola has low product diversification. Pepsi diversified its product line by introducing the snacks like Kurkure and Lays and from this aspect; Coca Cola still has one product line, i.e. beverages.
• Since by the time people are becoming health conscious and these soft beverages such as coke etc. are not considered good for health. Therefore this could fall into the weakness of the brand as well.
• Poor water management. In the past few years, many cases came into view against the well-known brand Coca Cola, where it was claimed that the brand is fusing the chemical of pesticide in the water.

Redeem the opportunities

There are very cases where there are zero opportunities for brands. If evaluated keenly, each brand can come up with the new opportunity. If the subjected brand focuses or aims to implicate, then there are few opportunities for Coca Cola as well.

• There is still an opportunity is available to introduce a new product line.
• The improvement in the quality and healthy ingredients can strengthen the position of the brand also it can help in capitalizing its sales.
• Specifically in the portfolio of the brand, there are products which neither have enough sales nor have acceptance in the market. It can be brought into play by giving huge attention to its marketing strategies.
• Since people have few doubts regarding the water management of the brand, so it can be cleared by fixing the bugs.

Depict the threats

Only if the brand is mature this doesn’t keep the brand is completely in the incubation. No, these are the mature brands which have more threats, one wrong move and the game is over! So, be proactive and depict the expected threats beforehand. For instance, the threats of Coca Cola can be depicted as follows:

• What else could be the biggest threat than the scarcity of water? Since the climate is changing, therefore, the threat of scarcity of the water is at its edge. The limitations of water sources could break the image of the brand, and it can expose the biggest downfall.

• Few indirect competitors could be a threat, as well. For example, the cafes providing a range of healthy products can directly hit on the sales and the reputation of the brand. In the end, the stigma of “unhealthy drink” is still associated with Coca Cola.

Hope you all have now got the accurate image of SWOT analysis. As we mentioned before that it’s just a matter of calculation and intellect so, we expect that our all readers are now in agreement of this statement too. With our provided guidelines and extensively given details, any of you can perform SWOT on your brand now. So, have a holistic evaluation of your business and with your findings, fix your business bugs now!